April 16 2010
Today we were able to take Prince and Knightly out to your friends place for a playday. Prince and I had a lot of fun! It was raining when we got there so since I didn't want to get wet I stood in the trailer and let Prince graze on the outside. I had Prince on the 45ft line and so every once and a while I would ask him to back a little farther out. Prince had a lot of incentive to back out because he wanted to keep eating so he knew that after he backed up he could eat. Such a smart pony! We had a lot of fun with that and then it stopped rained so I left my shelter in the trailer and then went and we all gathered around and decided what we were going to do.
We decided to go into the arena and do something like the Parelli games just not in the competition sense. We had a lot of fun... or at least I did! We made sure to pick things that everyone could so some of the things were really easy for me and Prince but one really fun thing was we had to either lead our horse by the front leg or lead them by the hocks from one tire to the other. I picked leading by the hocks because I knew it would be challenging for Prince and I. Prince did soooo well! He didn't go completely straight but we made it! I was actually surprised at how well he did! Some of the other things we did were standing on the tarp, going sideways over the log, backing between barrels and stuff like that. It was fun though.
Then Prince and I did some Falling Leaf... it was soooooo nice to have a big space to do it in! At first Prince wasn't in tune with me and I really had to get big but pretty soon Prince put slack in the rope and even though the turns he kept the slack in the line! Plus he was cantering most of it! It was great! Then I was asked to demonstrate Mounting by the neck! Yikes! Prince and I hadn't done that since... well the last time we did it there was a lot of snow on the ground is it was cold! So I said sure and off we went. I made sure everyone knew that I haven't done it in a while so if it looked bad... which I knew it would... they knew why ;) The first try was awful! Prince did really well at lowering his head and then lifting it at the right time but then he walked off and so I was half on his neck, half off, hanging on while trying to stop Prince. I was able to hang on until I could swing my leg up. So then I gave Prince a rest and then tried again. Prince did even better this time and only walked off a very little bit, I was able to slid back into place and it was great! Not the best we have ever done though but it was really good considering we were in a different place, and we hadn't done it for months!
After that Prince and I just hung out for a while. I had asked Prince to straddle the smaller log and so he was standing there so I climbed up and sat on the side of him and watched the others play. By this time it was well after lunch so we went in and ate lunch then came back out again. It was raining so I decided just to put the bareback pad on Prince and not saddle up. Prince and I did some circles, traveling circles, change of directions, transitions, jumping, touch it, and lots of other things.
Then I got up to ride. My mom offered to tape me riding and suggested that I do everything that I could do for a Level 3 Freestyle Audition. There were a couple things that I couldn't do, cantering and jumping but I decided to do what I could and at least that way I could see what I needed to improve on. Everything went really well. Prince and I did a lot of things that I never thought we were be able to do some soon!
We started off with standing on the pedestal (with all four feet) while I stood on Prince etc then we did Follow the rail. Prince did REALLY well! I don't think I had to correct him more then three times! We did walk, trot transitions and rode into the corners etc. It was so much fun! After that we did the Question box! The first circle we did at the walk and then after that we trotted most of the. Prince did really well with that and I was really pleased with it. Then we did some sideways, we went over different obstacles etc.
Then (I am really proud of both Prince and myself for doing this!!) We did Figure eights at the trot with a carrot stick! Prince did wonderful and didn't break gait and I was able to stay confident and balanced (I lost my balance once but other then that I was fine) and it was just really cool! It helped that it was on flat ground but still it was huge for us especially bareback!
The last thing we did was opening a gate. Prince and I had never done it with a wooden gate before so it was interesting. Prince kept bushing the gate one way while I was trying to move it the other way. It was funny! But in the end we got it and it was fun!
We ended the day by me taking Prince out to graze for a bit before loading up and coming back home. I loaded Prince all by myself too! I sent him into the trailer (He trotted in!) then I moved him over so that I could close the divider then put then put the bar up and then since I didn't know how to tie the knot my good friend showed me that. It was really cool! Prince did really well and stood just perfectly!
Naturally,
~Keri
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